Uk leaders

EUROPEAN leaders are considering pushing for a unified Ireland to stay within the EU after Brexit.Ahead of a meeting of the EU 27 members in Brussels tomorrow, diplomats are planning to ask them to endorse the idea, the Financial Times has reported.Taking Northern Ireland out of the UK would allow both Northern Ireland to seamlessly rejoin the bloc with us after the UK quits in March 2019.A vote in Ireland in favour of reunification would have to pass first – which is allowed under a clause of the Good Friday Agreement.Some hope that a deal could be reached like in Germany in the 1990s – when East Germany was able to enter the European Community after the fall of the Berlin Wall.Enda Kenny had been pushing Brussels to get a clause in the Brexit deal to guarantee Northern Ireland’s place in the EU after a possible reunification.But a referendum can only take place when there is reason to believe a majority would be in favour.A recent poll showed that just 22 … [Read more...] about EU leaders planning to unite Ireland post-Brexit and keep whole island in the Union as they make avoiding a hard border a priority for upcoming negotiations

Philip Hammond apologized on Friday for his "poor choice of words" in an interview with Sky News earlier the same day, in which he referred to the European Union as "the enemy" in Brexit negotiations. Hammond tweeted from the sidelines of a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington that he had been "making the point that we are united at home" in the televised interview. He also recast the EU as "friends and partners" and reiterated Britain's intent to achieve an exit deal from the European bloc that would benefit both sides. When speaking on Sky News earlier Friday, Hammond alluded to division within the UK over the shape that the country's final departure should take. "I understand that passions are high, I understand that people have very strong views about this, but we are all going to the same place, we all have the same agenda," the finance minister said. "The enemy, the opponents, are out there, they're on the other side of the negotiating table. Those … [Read more...] about UK finance chief regrets calling EU ‘the enemy’

Reker Ahmed, a 17-year-old boy, was attacked by around 30 people shortly before midnight last Friday, according to British police. He was waiting at a bus stop with two friends when the suspects walked up to him and asked where he came from. Once they found out he was an asylum seeker, they chased him and beat him up. Ahmed, as he is named by the media, suffered a fractured skull and a blood clot in his brain. Police say they have arrested 13 suspects in the brutal attack and that the teenager was lucky enough not to be killed. The attack appeared to have been without any motive, but two men and one of the teenage suspects have been charged with racially aggravated grievous bodily harm, Reuters news agency reported. Hate crimes on the rise Asylum seekers are not the only targets of hate crime in the UK. Immigration has been a major political issue in Britain and also one of the main factors why voters chose to leave the European Union. According to Rose Simkins, chief of anti-racism … [Read more...] about Attack on asylum seeker in Croydon highlights hate crime in the UK

This week, Narendra Modi will make his first visit to the UK since winning the Indian premiership in 2014. His packed schedule will include lunch with the queen, an overnight stay at the prime minister's country residence Chequers, and an address to a crowd of up to 70,000 British Indians at London's Wembley Stadium. This warm reception is quite a turnaround given that until last year Modi was banned from entering the UK at all, due to his alleged role in deadly anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat that took place in 2002 while he was chief minister of the state. Religious intolerance in India has made headlines worldwide after a series of high profile incidents including the lynching to death of a man accused of eating beef in September. However, if a recent state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping is anything to go by, concerns about rising religious intolerance in India will be far off the agenda. President Xi's visit, the first by a Chinese head of state in 10 years, reciprocated … [Read more...] about Money on the agenda as Modi visits the UK

Prime Minister David Cameron, positioned on the far right of a seven-person podium, struggled to assert himself in Thursday's debate, facing hostility - on one point or another - from every rival speaker on stage. In the first and only full TV debate as part of the British campaign, following last week's quasi-head-to-head between Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband, the prime minister sought to defend his economic record since forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010. "If we go back to the tax, the waste, the spending and the debt, all the things that got us into a mess in the first place, we wouldn't help working people - we'd hurt working people. That's what Labour did last time and we mustn't let it happen again," Cameron said at one point. Later in the debate, he gestured across at his six opponents, one by one, saying: "What I see here is more debt and more taxes, more debt and more taxes … a little more debt and some more taxes, and a lot more debt … [Read more...] about No decisive winner after UK party leaders slug it out in TV debate

The UK's economy grew by 0.7 percent in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Friday in an initial estimate. To most analysts, it mattered little that the figure marked a slight slowdown from 0.9-percent growth recorded in the second quarter as they'd already penciled in a drop because of concerns over an uncertain global outlook. Despite the slower pace, the British economy looked more dynamic than the eurozone as a whole which logged sluggish growth and struggles with deflationary pressures. "Today's strong growth figures show that the UK continues to lead the pack in an increasingly uncertain global economy," Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne commented. The ONS noted the slight slowdown reflected a weaker service sector, which accounts for more than three quarters of the nation's GDP. Brussels bashing Rather than worrying about the slowdown, domestic economists and policy makers were more concerned about the content of an article … [Read more...] about UK economy grows more slowly, but grows

British Prime Minister David Cameron dismissed US calls for an inquiry into the release of the Lockerbie bomber in a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington. "I don't need an inquiry to tell me it was a bad decision. It was a bad decision," Cameron said in a joint press conference. Cameron said his top civil servants would review the details of last year's release of terminally ill Libyan Abdel Baset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, and ascertain whether more information should be made public. BP's admission that it had lobbied over a prisoner transfer deal with Libya in 2007 to improve trade relations with the country has caused transatlantic tensions, especially after the massive underwater oil spill at a BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico. However, BP says it played no role in Megrahi's release. "That wasn't a decision taken by BP; it was a decision taken by the Scottish government," Cameron said, alluding to the Scottish National Party's regional government in Scotland, which has … [Read more...] about BP dominates agenda as US and UK leaders meet

In phone calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday evening, Trump discussed last Friday's airstrikes on a Syrian air base in retaliation for what Washington says was a chemical gas attack by Syria's military. The three leaders agreed "on the importance of holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable" for the atrocity, the White House said in a statement after the calls. Read: US-Russian honeymoon turns sour over Syria The Syrian government has denied it was behind the April 4 assault which killed as many as 100 people. A spokeswoman for May said Washington and London had agreed that there was a "window of opportunity" to persuade Syria's longtime ally Russia to sever its links with Assad. New talks hopeful "They agreed that US Secretary of State Tillerson's visit to Moscow this week provides an opportunity to make progress towards a solution which will deliver a lasting political settlement," the spokeswoman said. … [Read more...] about US, German, UK leaders discuss pressure on Russia to end Syria links

In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that on leaving the European Union she intended on striking "the right deal internationally" as well as a "fair deal at home." Sidestepping questions on whether she would prioritize curbing immigration from the EU over Britain's preferential access to the EU's single market, May said it was not a "binary choice." June's referendum was a "vote for us to change that freedom of movement," May added. "We will be able to have control of our borders, control of our laws." Single market mystery Still unable to confirm whether Britain will be leaving the European single market, May said, "We want the best possible deal for UK businesses in the EU and for European companies trading in the UK." Leaders of the remaining 27 EU states, and most recently German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have repeatedly warned the UK that they would "not be able to cherry pick." May denied … [Read more...] about UK Prime Minister Theresa May to set out Brexit plans ‘in coming weeks’

Speaking in front of a grey and white map of the world with the motto "Shared History, Shared Challenges, Shared Future" British Prime Minister Theresa May read her 5,000-word Cabinet-approved speech in a building, reported to be a disused police barracks, next door to the ancient Santa Maria Novella church in Florence, Italy on Friday. Never at home in Europe? May suggested Britain had for geographical reasons never felt completely part of Europe and the vote to leave taken narrowly in the referendum in June 2016 was in part to regain "domestic democratic control" from the EU. The prime minister suggested there was a profound responsibility to make the decision work and be "imaginative and creative" in making a new relationship between the UK and the EU. May referred to the 14 papers published by the UK on Brexit and three rounds of sometimes "tough" negotiations with "concrete progress" being made on issues such as Northern Ireland and the … [Read more...] about UK PM Theresa May proposes Brexit transition in Florence speech